Cary, NC – After a very disappointing game Saturday night, losing to the Blackhawks, 4-3 in OT after going into the third with a 3-1 lead, the Carolina Hurricanes bounced back in a big way with a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars, lead by Teuvo Teravainen’s first career hat trick, all scored in the third period.

Aho Finally Gets First of the Season

The game started out with the ice slanted towards Canes goalie Scott Darling as the first eight and a half minutes were virtually played entirely in the Canes’ end. Dallas was quicker to the puck, had much better passing as it seemed as if the Canes couldn’t make two passes in a row and was stronger on the boards. Darling kept the Canes in the game as he was challenged several times during the early onslaught.

This game featured a battle of the giants in goal as Darling at six feet six inches was the shorter of the goalies as Ben Bishop comes in at six feet seven inches. After one of Darling’s nine saves in the first, Teravanien picked up a rebound in the Canes end passing up to Jordan Staal. This was on the end of their shift and Staal was running out of gas along the near boards and with a defender draped all over him managed to slide a centering pass to Sebastian Aho entering the zone in the high slot.

Seabass gathered the puck with his long stick then went right to the goal, hands twisting back and forth and as Bishop spread the pads, Seabass nonchalantly slid the puck five-hole for his first of the season.

His celebration was loud and long with Noah Hanifin being the first to congratulate him and remind him there was more of the game to play. That goal woke up the rest of the bench and the Caniacs as the Canes made up for lost time and evened the shots on goal for the period.

Canes Have Better Second But Dallas Ties the Game

The second period saw the Canes come out much stronger and better than the first. Passing was crisp and on the tape, Brock McGinn started banging bodies, Josh Jooris played his best game as a Canes and was the fastest skater on the ice for the Canes, giving a forechecking lesson every time he was on the ice and Dallas was trying to clear the puck from their D-zone. The Canes couldn’t catch a break on turning their powerplay around.

Two times, the Canes were on the powerplay only to have it cut short by a penalty of their own. The second one was costly as right after the four-on-four, Dallas tied the score, showing why their powerplay is #1 in the NHL. The Stars are a typical western conference team as far as size, they outweigh the Canes by an average of 14 pounds but they are a fast team. With one of the best coaches in the NHL, Ken Hitchcock and the retooling they did over the summer, expect the Stars to go deep in the playoffs.

Teravainen Nets Natural Hat Trick

The third period was all Canes and really was the Teuvo Teravanien show as he scored a natural hat trick in just over seven minutes, which has to be a new, or close to, a Cane record. With the Canes on the powerplay, Aho had the pick at the half boards, passing to Staal in the slot. Staal was double-covered so he passed to Teravanien on the left point. With Elias Lindholm in front of the crease, Teravanien sent a slap shot to the goal that found the far corner, ending a long drought of powerplay goals.

A little over four minutes later, Staal won a hard fight for the puck in the corner passing over to Jaccob Slavin. Slavin quickly passed over to Teravainen at the top of the faceoff circle sending a wrister towards the goal. The puck deflected off a defender into the goal for a solid 3-1 Cane lead. On their next shift, Aho made a quick pass to Staal along the half boards, Staal made a centering pass to Teravanien in the slot who wasted no time for a quick one timer that went high stick side to complete his first hat trick.

With the game completely in control, the Canes never took their foot off the gas. With just 2.6 seconds left, Jeff Skinner notched his ninth of the season from the far half boards after hard work by Lindy and Trevor van Riemsdyk to give the Canes their first win over Dallas in two years.